non-existent and extremely fragmented paper system. After reviewing all of
the possibilities including everything from top of the line to FOSS, we
decided to invite 4 vendors to give us a web demo. The vendors were PCR
Educator, Veracross, Powerschool, and inResonance.
We gathered up the people that would directly benefit from these systems
including our administrators, secretaries, and a few teachers. We found PCR
Educator to be very expensive yet it seems to be worth it. It is definitely
the most complete solution in our eyes and includes everything your school
should need from scheduling, to reporting, to online inquiry/admissions, to
student tracking. Also, completely web based and hosted offsite which is
much less hassle for us since we have a very small tech staff (me). We have
not implemented anything yet so I cannot speak for how the process is going
or how the program is performing but what I can tell you is that when we do
purchase our SIS (which will be soon) it will most likely be PCR.
Hope that helps!
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 10:35 PM, Thomas Phelan <tphelan@peddie.org> wrote:
> Thanks David,
>
> Just to be clear, overall Blackbaud does meet our needs nicely from inquiry
> through alumnus and as I've said I really DO like the Blackbaud platform as
> a whole. Please don't misunderstand the reason for my apps. It is not a
> case
> of me spending a lot of time trying to make a broken system work, not at
> all. Rather, the apps that I've built extend the functionality of our
> Blackbaud system in a way that I really haven't seen offered by other
> SIS's.
>
>
> I'll limit myself to one more comment about picking an SIS. While comparing
> feature sets is certainly important, I think it is also important to look a
> the whole company. While I have issues with the business side of the house
> at Blackbaud, Blackbaud's CTO Sean Sullivan and his development team really
> are top shelf. They are excellent developers and they have a great vision
> for their products. While there are other fine SIS's out there and
> different
> schools have different needs, I think a decision to go with Blackbaud is,
> for most schools like ours, a good decision in the short/medium term and an
> excellent in the long term.
>
> Tom
>
> --
> Tom Phelan
> Director of Technology
> Peddie School
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 5:50 PM, David F. Withrow <
> DavidWithrow@harfordday.org> wrote:
>
> > Tom -
> > I gotta say I respect your efforts. Truly I am impressed, but ...
> >
> > Why use a product that can't easily do what you want it to do? Further,
> it
> > is not truly a
> > cross platform product which most of us need.
> >
> > Even on our wintel side of things when we upgraded to FE 7 nearly 16
> months
> > ago we have
> > not resolved several accounting issues which simply have been brought
> > forward. With the
> > expense it is hard to justify that kind of result.
> >
> > We are considering, much to the pain of all who use Blackbaud here (not
> me
> > for I have
> > found them wanting), alternatives that are cross platform in nature and
> can
> > exchange
> > database information with ease.
> >
> > David F. Withrow
> > Director of Technology
> > Harford Day School
> > Bel Air, Maryland 21014
> > voice: 410 879 2350 ex 33
> > fax: 410 836 5918
> > skype: dfwithrow
> > http://www.harfordday.org
> >
> > The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
> > - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
> >
> > In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
> practice,
> > there is.
> > - Yogi Berra
> >
> >
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> >
>
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